As
panel member of the ERC you have two aspects which worry you from time to time:
in the first round that you might miss out on an exciting good proposal, and in
the second round that you select a proposal with hidden serious flaws.
There is no interview for Advanced Grant
applications - just an extremely thorough and confidential experts
evaluation process. This confidentiality goes without saying for
my personal assistance!
In Germany the system of assistance for
applicants to the Horizon 2020 programs of the European Commission is quite
developed, with KoWi ("Kooperationsstelle EU der Wissenschaftsorganisationen")
and the NKS ("Nationale Kontaktstellen") most prominent. Foremost the
NKS ERC offers free-of-charge interview
training for ERC Starting and Consolidator Grant applicants geared towards German Host
Institutions who have been invited to the interviews in Brussels. These trainings
(in English) give applicants the opportunity to practice their interview and
receive individual feedback from a professional rhetoric coach. Usually a
successful grantee will also share his or her experience, complemented by
information from the ERC NKS.
These
training sessions are fully booked early, a waiting list exists and for those
"unfortunate" a webinar is arranged. Large German research
organisations like the Max Planck / Fraunhofer / Helmholtz societies (as well
as major universities) arrange additional training opportunities for their
scientists. And yes, similar training opportunities exist in some other H2020 countries,
as well as training days offered by commercial operations.
Mostly
for my own customers, but also for scientists in the less-fortunate countries, I
offer two ERC interview training opportunities:
1. Individual advice by e-mail
and Skype.
Besides giving a step-by-step introduction to interviews past and
present I will, using the complete submission file (which I
usually have of my customers) prepare a very
critical evaluation - and try to guess questions the experts and
panel members may raise. I also discuss more personal aspects, based on
my experiences, in personal meetings.
2. A one-
or two-day training seminar in loco for
a small group of max. 8 scientists, combining general information with mock-panel
sessions (with or without video recording) and individual advice. Sometimes this is supplemented by individual skype
sessions afterwards.
Both training opportunities should be
arranged well in advance of the session in Brussels.
If you are interested, please
contact me via office@icck.eu for further details.